Pensacola Woman Killed When Tree Fell on Her Home Was Jenn Biggs Williams, 57, Husband Says

Since Isaias made landfall near Destin as a Category 2 hurricane on the night of Friday, Oct. 9, authorities have put the death toll at four: two in Florida's Escambia County and two in Alabama. One of the Florida victims now has a name and a story.

Jenn Biggs Williams, 57, a human resources worker, was killed at her home in Pensacola. Her husband of ten years, Joey Williams, described what happened in an interview with NewsNation.

Inside the house when the tree came down

Williams said the couple stepped outside while the storm was passing to take photos of the sky and some of the damage. They went back in. A tree then came through the roof into the living room and trapped both of them.

"I was able to squeeze out. My wife didn't make it," Williams said. "The tree just fell on her and it was … we like to think it was pretty instant, you know? I mean, just gone. Gone."

He said he called for her and got no answer. He then found a neighbor. "I'm like, 'My wife's trapped under the tree. Please, please,'" he said. "And, I mean, there's nothing we can do."

Williams said emergency responders told him their ability to help was limited while the storm intensified, with winds still up to 100 mph. Crews later cut up the tree and removed her body. The coroner's office was called to the scene.

"They let me say bye to her," he said. "I watched the love of my life for 10 years go into the back of a coroner's van and head down that road. That's the hardest thing I ever swallowed in my life."

He said his wife was loved by her family, her community and her co-workers. "She was the ultra-nice bada-- person," he said. He has called her phone five times, he said, "just to tell her … she was my world."

The other deaths

The Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency director confirmed that a person in Birmingham, Alabama, also died in connection with the storm. The remaining Alabama death and the second Escambia County death are part of the count of four given by authorities late Saturday.

No official account of those deaths has changed the total of four.

State and federal response

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Friday that the Trump administration approved emergency declarations for Florida and Alabama.

Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins described the landfall this way: "This thing hit like a freight train. It was fast. It came in like a Mike Tyson punch."

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, as the storm moved through her state, said: "This storm cannot clear fast enough."

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida remains in a "hazardous situation" and urged residents to use caution as recovery work begins.

What is still in play

Isaias has weakened into a post-tropical cyclone, but its remnants were still moving north on Saturday night. Isolated tornadoes and strong winds were a threat across the Southeast into early Sunday. Flash flooding was possible from northern Georgia to western North Carolina.

About 10 million people were under flood alerts from northern Florida to southern Virginia, some of them lasting into Sunday afternoon, NBC News reported. Hundreds of thousands of customers remained without power as of late Saturday.

Isaias is the first U.S. hurricane landfall since Milton came ashore as a Category 3 south of Tampa two years ago.

Whether the death toll holds at four is an open question for the Panhandle and the Carolinas. Flood-driven fatalities often surface after the rain stops, and the flood alerts across the Southeast had not expired as of Saturday night.